On portable games.

No shit, there I was...

It was a fine fall day, and I had just finished browsing 紀伊国屋店: a fine bookstore in San Jose that has a wealth of Japanese books available. As I was leaving, I decided on a whim to step into the small computer store nearby, and see what they had. I was not prepared for what awaited me...

They had Crisis Core, Reventant Wings, and Tactics Advance 2. All of them months before they would be available in English.

This left me with in a very difficult position. I love Final Fantasy, and it's important to me to understand every nuance of dialog. However, I could have three new Final Fantasies Right Now(tm). So, I sat there for a while doing some soul searching, and finally reminded myself: as much as I wanted to, I could not yet read Japanese. So, with a heavy heart, I left...

Now, we'll step forward about a month. Revenant Wings was released in the US. I picked it up, and played through it. It was a good game; much more enjoyable than Final Fantasy XII had been. Most of the fun came from the solid gameplay, however. It struck me that I really would not have minded if I had missed some of the storyline. I then thought back to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and recalled that it too was light on storyline. Thus, I made up my mind, and did it.

I bought Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 in Japanese.

It was the first Japanese game I would play that I didn't know already know intimately. I was rather excited, and I prepared for the standard Final Fantasy opening. A grand cinematic would play, epic music would sound, and the credits would roll. Afterwards, some brief dialog would roll, and the first tutorial battle would start! I'd name my character, and---

It opened with white text on a black background. "ーーもうすぐ夏休みだ。" (already soon it will be summer vacation)

That's alright. Simple text, easy to understand, I'll just work my way through this. Another page, I can understand some of this... Another page... Another... Aha! "忘れないうちに名前だけでも書いておこう。" "Don't forget, just write your name..." They're going to ask for my name! I can understand this! I proceed to put in my name, ready to move on, and...another page of white text on black background. I vainly try to translate a couple pages, and finally give up and start skipping pages. I figure I'll just get to the proper game, and go from there. Six pages of text pass, and I'm done! I move on to...

A quiz. A multiple choice quiz.

I'm still not sure what the point of this quiz was. Does it affect your stats? Is it storyline only? Does it change your final weapon? I don't think so. No, I'm pretty sure I know what this is for... It's a message. It's saying, "We're on to you, gaijin. Do you really think you're ready for this?"

Sadly, I was not... But soon. Then, we shall match blows again, Tactics Advance 2. We shall match blows, and I damn well will be able to tell you what I'm doing on my summer vacation!

Until then, stay tuned for Dragons from Final Fantasy IV...